New Visions/New Voices, an international showcase of new works in development for young audiences, is a place for playwrights, composers, and directors to experiment, take risks, and imagine the future of their plays. Come be a part of the process and experience firsthand the fresh new visions and voices in theater for children and young people. Dramaturg Jacqueline E. Lawton will serve as dramaturg on playwright Suzan Zeder's latest play, Aviatrix under the direction of Kate Bryer, fromImagination Stage, Bethesda, MD.

The 2014 New Visions/New Voices readings will begin on Friday, May 16, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Family Theater and will conclude in the early afternoon of Sunday, May 18, 2014. Since its inception in 1991 and including this showcase, the program has assisted in the development of 96 new plays, musicals, and operas from 86 playwrights and 37 composers working with 57 U.S. and 10 international theater companies and has received awards for exemplary service to the field from both the American Alliance for Theater and Education and the Children's Theatre Foundation of America.

While at the Kennedy Center, selected playwrights, directors, music directors, composers, and actors work collaboratively in a weeklong intensive to further develop new works. After revisions, rewrites, and rehearsals of the new plays and musicals, the works are presented as rehearsed readings during a three-day conference for theater professionals, educators, and others interested in the field.

About the Artists

Kathryn Chase Bryer is Imagination Stage's Associate Artistic Director. She has helped develop new scripts such as Junie B. Jones & A Little Monkey Business and Petite Rouge by Joan Cushing, Looking for Roberto Clemente (voted “Favorite Family Production 2008” by DC Theatre Scene) by Karen Zacarias, music by Deborah Wicks La Puma and, most recently, The Dancing Princesses (voted co-winner for “Favorite Family Production 2010” by DC Theatre Scene) by Allison Currin and Chris Youstra. She has directed over 30 shows in the last 18 years, including Ferdinand the Bull, Lyle the Crocodile, Miss Nelson is Missing(2009 production with new script), Jungle Book, Junebug and the Reverend; Huck Finn's Story,Seussical, James and the Giant Peach and Charlotte's Web. This past summer, she directed GIRLS’PLAY as part of the Source Theatre 10 min. Play Festival. She is a former member of the Round House Touring Company, and for 10 years, was a Wolf Trap Artist for the Head Start Early Learning thru the Arts Program.

Jacqueline E. Lawton (Dramaturg) has worked as a dramaturg and research consultant at Active Cultures, African Continuum Theater Company, the Arden Theater (Philadelphia, PA), Arena Stage, Discovery Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater (New York, NY) Folger Shakespeare Library, the Ford's Theatre, Horizons Theater (Atlanta, GA), Howard University, the Hub, Interact Theatre (Philadelphia, PA), Morgan State University, Redshift Productions (New York, NY), Rorschach Theater Company, Round House Theatre, Theater Alliance, Theater of the First Amendment, Theater J, Tribute Productions, University of Maryland, Virginia Stage Company, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She is a 2012 TCG Young Leaders of Color award recipient, National New Play Network (NNPN) Playwright Alum, and member of Arena Stage's Playwrights' Arena. She is also a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.

Suzan Zeder has been recognized nationally and internationally as one of the leading playwrights for young and family audiences in the United States. Her plays have been produced in all 50 states by professional, university and community theatres. Her work has also been seen in Canada, England, France, Switzerland, Greece, Israel, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Dr. Zeder is a four-time winner of the Distinguished Play Award by the American Alliance of Theatre and Education and has served as a panelist and site reporter for the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group. In 1998 she was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre and in 2002 she was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2004 she co-authored a book, The Spaces of Creation: The Creative Process of Playwriting, with her husband, movement specialist, Jim Hancock. Dr. Zeder is the former head of playwriting at the University of Texas at Austin, where she held the Endowed Chair in Theatre for Youth/Playwriting. She currently lives in Santa Fe, N.M. The Edge of Peace completes a trilogy of plays including Mother Hicks and The Taste of Sunrise, spanning 30 years of her writing life. Photo: Debra Shore, The Portrait Studio, Dallas.